Select your system architecture: yep, straight forward, and its even labelled on the button (popup mouseover is empty btw)
Select your system type: again, yep, straight forward, and its even labelled on the button (popup mouseover is empty btw)
Select your desktop: five icons that mean nothing to a gnome user or newbie, no labels (popup mouseover is empty). - razor mate kde lxde xfce
- how is a pizza wheel icon telling me its Razor?
- how is a green play button supposed to easily communicate that it is Mate?
- the important information relating to these options is missing, so the desktop decision is often made in confusion.

My operating system preference is dictated by the need for compatibility with the others I need to work with. Sadly, it is Windows 7 on my main machines.

Over the years, it has been fascinating to watch the hardware technology develop and flourish, and the evolution of Linux and the community that follows it. With an embarrassing amount of legacy hardware around the home, I have sought to purpose-build systems to specialise in specific roles (media server, graphics workstation, music production, email server, games rig, VOIP and social media server etc). For each system, I have tried to find an operating system to match the hardware and provide the best functionality for its role.

For this reason, it has been fun to learn the functionality of many Linux Distros and the strengths of its operation. VortexBox and some of the ethernet router visualisation distros have been awesome finds, and I encourage people to explore the Linux world and find things they didn't think possible with their hardware.

I have followed Linux since Red Hat 6.3 (when I struggled with IP chains and PPP over ATM functionality in that release) and have always been keen on the ability of Linux developers to make their distributions more accessible to the public. I love the discussions and conversations that are growing in the forums here. They are positive and supportive - even where there are differences of opinion.

This is perhaps the reason for my post.

For those familiar with Linux, the packages, labels and icons are instantly recognisable. As you all become increasingly familiar with the new packages, new names and new icons, the platform grows and develops further.

Sadly, this raises the barrier to entry for newcomers to Linux who may be technically literate but not familiar with Linux. As they have missed the new learning, the underpinning knowledge isn't easily available.
For example - the graphic for Ubuntu and the graphic for Razor do not easily provide cues to what they are or what they do in comparison to the graphic for Pec, Nginx, Konquerer and SUSE. The icons are not searchable on Google either.

Consider this analogy: If you were provided with an instruction graphic in Chinese traditional characters and Arabic script on a button, you can't easily drop it into Google translate, and would similarly find it unnecessarily frustrating that the Chinese and Arabic native speakers talking loudly around you don't comprehend what you are finding so difficult. By its very nature, Linux uptake is like this without apology.

We need to keep this in mind.

In my humble opinion, the biggest barrier to uptake for all Linux distributions has always been an assumption of high contextual knowledge in the general population by the developer community. Linux developers seem to assume that their package, its dependencies, its functionality, name and logo are instantly recognisable. There is also an ongoing lack of collaborative education in basic common Linux knowledge (distro agnostic) as a clear bridge for the general population interested in exploring this fascinating world. This is sad really, as enthusiasm often grows into impatience, then confusion, then frustration and finally abandonment. </rant>

I wonder how much bigger the Linux community could be if we could address this barrier to entry?

always been keen on the ability of Linux developers to make their distributions more accessible to the public.
There is an intention and some important efforts to do so by the developpers of porteus.

I love the discussions and conversations that are growing in the forums here. They are positive and supportive - even where there are differences of opinion.
We try benevolently to provide a courteous atmosphere on this forum. Even though a lot of patience is sometime needed. Given the size of our experienced membership, we consider to offer a rather swift service.

If you have some labels or icons to propose, just provide them. I would be surprised that the developpers would not adopt it. Hamza is the one responsible for the interface used to built these tailored iso of porteus.

Linux could also be accessible. But perception, is an important factor. Suppose that the most popular distro would be porteus. It would be the benchmark This would be your system of reference, the one you are familiar with. The advent of windows, could require some adaptation given the lack of familiarity with the os. Personnally, with the changes to word processor in 2007, I have choosen to go for openoffice. In addition, some tools to adapt the windows system would not be there or the syntax would be unknown to me (cli mode is so useful under linux). The inconvenience of having some regular updates would be frustrating. The additional fees for additional software would be frustrating. The lack of help from the support team ...

Last edited by francois on 23 Jul 2014, 01:57, edited 2 times in total.

That's the icon for Razor. In fact there should be the word "RAZOR" in the popup when you hover over it. I would guess browser incompatibility. Try a different browser and see if it shows the correct popup.

How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.